By way of explanation and definitely not apology for Mr. Novak, long ago he was quite a bit more conservative. He also acted more as a true investigative journalist vs assassin during those times. Levin was talking about this on his Tuesday show. I agree that he had moved substantially to the left in say the last decade.
I did not know he had changed from his earlier views. Though as late as 2003 he was debating on media bias at CPAC with Mark Shields and he sounded quite conservative then.
He was always trashing the left on Crossfire, McLaughlin, and other shows in the 1980s and 90s. It was great listening to him.